Unit 37. A Piece of Cheese.

Short words like articles (a, the), conjunctions (and, or) and prepositions (to, of) are usually unstressed. Listen to this chant. Every line has the stress pattern oOoO. They have this rhythm because the first and third words are all unstressed. These words are: some, and, a, of, for, the, to, or, as.

Important for listening! Listen again to the chant in A. Notice that the vowels in all the
unstressed syllables are pronounced the same. This sound is written as /∂/ in the phonemic alphabet (see Unit 7). Also, in fast speech, the consonant sounds after the vowel in these words may not be pronounced. In this case, and sounds like an, and of sounds like a. Listen to these examples.

and sounds like an:an apple and an orange and an onionof sounds like a:a bit of this and a bit of that

You don't need to copy the fast speech pronunciation. People will understand you if you use careful speech. But you need to be able to understand fast speech.Note: The consonant sound in of is not dropped when the following word begins with a vowel, for example some of each.

What are the things in the picture? Write them in the correct column
according to the rhythm (there are two phrases in each column). Use
these words: bowl, bottle, jar, pocket, bag, pot, carton, kilo. Then say the phrases aloud.Key.

1 I had a salad as / and a main course.
2 Give her an /some egg if she's hungry.
3 She went to look at / for the fruir.
4 He gave me a basket of / for bread.
5 Get some pasta and / or rice.
6 I like the / to cook.
7 She ordered a / the soup.
8 Have some / an orange juice.
9 He invited me at / for lunch.
10 He made this jar for / of jam himself.